3 3 fi BOY 
of the thiftle. In 1706, he married lady Elizabeth Cecil, 
daughter of the earl of Exeter. In 1709 he was promot¬ 
ed to the rank of major-general, and fworn of the privy 
council uf queen Anne. He was envoy extraordinary from 
the queen to the dates of Flanders and Brabant, with an 
appointment of ten pounds a-day, at a very critical junc¬ 
ture, namely, during the treaty of Utrecht. There, feme 
in authority at BrufTels, knowing they were foon to become 
the emperor’s fubjedts, and that his Imperial majefty was 
not on good terms with the queen, (hewed lefs refpefl to 
her minidry than they had formerly done : upon which, 
Orrery, who confidered their behaviour as an indignity to 
the crown of Great Britain, managed with fo much refo- 
lution and dexterity, that, when they thought his power 
was declining, or rather that he had no power at all, he 
got every one of them turned out of place. Her majefty, 
in the tenth year of her reign, raifed him to the dignity of 
a Brftifh peer, by the title of lord Boyle, baron of Mar- 
fton in Somerl'etftiire. On the acceftion of George I. he 
was made a lord of the bedchamber, and lord lieutenant 
and cuftos rotulorum of the county of Somerfet. His fre¬ 
quent voting againft the minifters, however, gave rife to a 
jealoufy, which ended in the lofs of his regiment, and of 
his poft of lord of the bedchamber. On the 28th of Sept. 
r7 2 2, he was committed clofe prifoner to the Tower, upon 
fufpicion of high treafon, and of being concerned in Layer’s 
plot. His confinement brought on fuch a dangerous fit of 
fteknefs, that, as Dr. Mead remonftrated to the council, 
unlefs he was immediately let at liberty, he would not an- 
l'wer for his life twenty-four hours: upon which, after (ix 
months imprifontnent, he was admitted to bail. Upon the 
ftriCleft enquiry, no fufficient ground for a profecution be¬ 
ing found, he was diicharged. After this, he conftantly 
attended in his place in the houfe of peers, as he had done 
before ; and, though he never fpoke in that alfembly, his 
pen was frequently employed to draw up the proteffs en¬ 
tered in its journals. He died, after a Ihort indilpofition, 
on the 21 ft of Atiguft 1731. He had a good relifli for the 
writings of the ancients, and gave fome prodmffions of his 
own. He publifhed, while a ftudent at Chrift-clutrch, a 
tranflation of the life of Lyfander, from the Greek of Plu¬ 
tarch. Dr. Aldrich, dean of Chrift-church, finding him 
to be a good Grecian, put him upon publifhing a new edi¬ 
tion of the epiftles of Phalaris, which appeared in the be¬ 
ginning of 1695, under the title of Phalaridis Agrigenti- 
nomm Tyranii Epiftolae. His lordfhip wrote a comedy, 
called As you find it; printed in the fecond volume of the 
works of Roger earl of Orrery. He was alfo author of a 
copy of verfes to Dr. Garth, upon Iris difpenfary, and of 
a prologue to Mr. Southerne’s play, called The Siege of 
Capua. 
BOYLE (John), earl of Cork and Orrery, a nobleman 
diftinguiftied by his learning and genius, the only fon of 
Charles earl of Orrery, the fubjedt of the preceding arti¬ 
cle, and born on the 2d of January, 1707. He was edu¬ 
cated at Chrift-church college, in Oxford ; but, as he him? 
felf declares, early difappointments, indifferent health, and 
many untow;ard accidents, rendered him fond of retire¬ 
ment, and of improving his talents for polite literature and 
poetry ; of which laft art he gave feveral excellent fpeci- 
mens. He alfo wrote a Tranfiation of Pliny’s Letters, with 
various notes, for the fervice of his eldeft fon lord Boyle, 
in 2 vols. 4to. This was firft publifhed in 1751. The year 
following, he publifhed the Life of Dean Swift, in feveral 
letters, addrelfed to his fecond fon Hamilton Boyle ; and 
afterwards printed Memoirs of Robert Cary earl of Mon¬ 
mouth, a fnanufeript prefented to him by a.relation, with 
explanatory notes. He died in 1762, aged fifty-fix. 
BOYLE’s LECTURES, a courfe of eight fermons or 
ledhues preached annually, fet on foot by the honourable 
Robert Boyle, by a codicil to his will in 1691 ; -'whole de- 
fign, as exprelled by the inftitutor, is, to prove the truth 
of tire Chriftian religion againft infidels, without defeend- 
ing *o any controverfies among Chriftians; and to anfwer 
new difficulties, fcruples, See. For the fupport of this lee- 
n o z 
ture he affigned the rent of his houfe in Crooked lane to 
fome learned divine within the bills of mortality, to be 
elected for a term not exceeding three years, by the late 
archbifhop Tennifon and others. But the fund proving 
precarious, the falary was ill paid; to remedy which, the 
archbifhop procured a yearly ftipend of 50I. for ever, to 
be paid quarterly, charged on a farm in the pariffi of Brill 
.in the county of Buckinghamfhire. To this inftitution we 
are indebted for many elaborate defences both of natural 
and revealed religion. 
BOYLE, a town of Ireland, in the county of Rofcom- 
nion, near Lough Key. The linen manufacture flourifhes 
in the neighbourhood. It is a borough, and fends two 
• members to the Irifti parliament: eighteen miles Couth of 
Sligo, and twenty-three north-north-weft of Longford. 
BOYNE, a river of Ireland, which rifes in the north 
part of the county of Kildare, erodes the county of Meath, 
and runs into the Irifh fea, four miles below Drogheda, 
celebrated fora victory obtained by the prince of Orange, 
afterwards William III. over James II. in the year 1690, 
which decided the fate of that unfortunate monarch, and 
eftabliftied king William on the throne of Great Britain. 
BOYNE, a town of France, in the department of the 
Loirct, and chief place of a canton, in the diftrriCt of Pi- 
thiviers: two leagues fouth-eaft of Pithiviers, and feven 
north-eaft of Orleans. 
BOYSE, Boys, or'Bois (John), one of the tranllators 
of the Bible in the reign of James I. was fon of William 
Bois, re'Ctor of Weft-Stowe, near St. Edmunffiury, in Suf¬ 
folk, and born at Nettleftead in that county, .in 1560. He 
was taught the firft rudiments of learning by his father; 
and his capacity was fuch, that at the age of five years he 
read the Bible in Hebrew. He was afterwards admitted 
of St. John’s college, Cambridge, where he diftinguiftied 
himfelf in by his (kill in the Greek. Happening to have 
the fmafl-pox when he was elected fellow, to preferve his 
feniority, he caufed himfelf to be carried, wrapped up in 
blankets, to be admitted. June 21, 1583, he was ordain¬ 
ed deacon, and next day prieft. He was ten years chief 
Greek leCturer in his college, and read every day. On the 
deatli of his father, he f'ucceeded him the reCtory of Weft: 
Stowe ; but lie refigned that preferment on marrying the 
daughter of Mr. Holt, reqtoro/ Boxworth, in Cambridge- 
fliire, whom he fucceeded in that living in 1596. Being 
wholly immerfed in his ftudies, he foon became fo much 
in debt that he was forced to fell his choice collection of 
books to a prodigious difad vantage. The lofs of his li-. 
brary afflidled him fo much, that he thought of quitting 
his native country. But a new tranflation of the Bible be¬ 
ing at this time to be made, by order of James I. Mr. 
Bois was elected one of the Cambridge tranflators. He 
performed not only his own, but alfo the part affigned to 
another, with great reputation. He was alfo one of the 
fix who met at Stationers’-hall to revife the whole: which 
talk they went through in nine months, having each from 
the company of ftationers during that time thirty (hillings 
a-week. He afterwards aftifted Sir Henry Saville in pub- 
lifiling the works of St. Chryfoftom, and Sir Henry intend¬ 
ed to have made him fellow of Eton, but was prevented 
by death. In 1615, Dr. Lancelot Andrews, bifhopof Ely, 
beftovved on him a prebend’s ftall in his church. He died 
in 1643, in the eighty-fourth year of his age ; leaving a 
great many manuferipts, particularly a commentary on al- 
moft all the books of the New Teftament. When he was 
a young ftudent at Cambridge, lie received from the learn¬ 
ed Dr. Whitaker three rules for avoiding thofe diftempers 
which ufually attend a fedentary life, to which lie conftant¬ 
ly adhered : the firft was, to ftudy always (landing ; the 
fecond, never to ftudy in .a . window ; the third, never to 
go to bed with his feet cold. 
BOZE (Claude Gros de), was born at Lyons, January 
28, 1680, and received an excellent education. He attach¬ 
ed himfelf to jurkfpnidence ; but antiquities and medals 
foon occupied him entirely. The chancellor de Pontchar- 
train, the abbe Bignon, Vaillant, Hardouin, admired him 
3 for 
